In accordance with the prior art, operating devices are addressed by the connection between lighting means and operating device being interrupted. This interruption is identified by the operating device and this operating device adopts the address that is currently to be allocated by the central control unit. This type of addressing requires a great expenditure with regards to time and labor since each individual lighting means has to be disconnected during installation in the entire lighting system.
Although methods for automatic address allocation already exist, for example an address can be allocated by random number, too many instances of double addressing can occur and thus require a great time expenditure in the case of large lighting systems. Avoiding these instances of double addressing requires a great time expenditure and computational complexity according to the known prior art.